


Plums (or not everyone believes in time)

by Harryissuchalittleshit



Series: To Be Intelligent and Young and Witty in the Aftermath of War [4]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Bisexual Female Character, Character Study, Chinese Character, F/F, F/M, Friends to Lovers, Homophobia, Minor Character Death, Post-Second War with Voldemort
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-29
Updated: 2021-01-29
Packaged: 2021-03-15 15:00:08
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,373
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29066211
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Harryissuchalittleshit/pseuds/Harryissuchalittleshit
Summary: Sue Li has been through a lot in her life, including moving from China to England at the age of eight.Her family is growing and changing, Hogwarts isn't the life she imagined, but at least she has Lisa to keep her company, until even that falls through.Time moves through her, but somehow she stays grounded.
Relationships: Sue Li/Lisa Turpin, Sue Li/Thomas Adam Collins
Series: To Be Intelligent and Young and Witty in the Aftermath of War [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1981820
Kudos: 1





	Plums (or not everyone believes in time)

**Author's Note:**

> This was so hard to write, mostly because I got distracted by Nano and then it took me a while to get back into the mindset of Sue. She's an interesting character and I really enjoyed fleshing out her character and making her a more prominent member of the Ravenclaw series.

When Sue Li was eight years old, she and her mother finally moved to England.

Her father was already there, he would make the journey twice a _year_ to come see them. Once for her birthday and once for her parents anniversary. He always came for one _week_ and then he was gone again, he sent letters while he was gone though. Sue knew English before she came to England, but it wasn’t great, it wasn’t even good.

Within _months_ of coming to England, her baby brothers were born.

Fai, Lan, and Jin were all good boys, but they were also loud and needy and too little for Sue to be interested in them. Not only did she have to figure out England, figure out living with her father for the first time she could remember, and figure out English, but she also had to deal with her triplet younger brothers.

And the plum tree that her father decided she was in charge of now.

Sue thought that coming to England would be the scariest thing she would ever do in her life, but she was wrong.

It was just that hardest.

~`~

Sue is eleven _years_ old when her world changes.

A woman with a stern face and sharp eyes and a surprising tolerance for three loud three _year_ old boys, is let into the mediation room. It’s the attic space between their flat and the shop, and Sue goes there to be alone every _day_.

Her parents don’t believe that their only daughter could be magic, but they do believe that she’s special. Professor McGonagall answers question after question, she argues with calm patience why Sue needs to go to school, and _finally_ , she gives Sue her letter.

She speaks to her parents in Mandarin because she doesn’t want Professor McGonagall to know that she was begging. Good daughters don’t ask for too much, good daughters listen and do as their told and help their family.

She still doesn’t know her father after three long _years_ , he’s a busy man with the shop and her brothers. But then he nods and tells her that she must keep up with her meditation and find a good Chinese boy to marry and to make sure to take care of the plum tree when she’s home.

~`~

Hogwarts is loud and scary and not what she ever imagined. She gets sorted blue and she can only eat the vegetables during the feast. Already she misses her mother’s stinky tofu and the bowls of rice with every meal.

Breakfast is easier, plums and yogurt become her staple. Anthony makes her eat bread, and Michael introduces her to cereal, and Terry gets his parents to send in tofu once a _month_ from their own family store.

She’s not very close to anyone of her fellow Ravenclaws, but she did know Lisa from primary, she never made fun of her accent. Her English has improved greatly, better than anyone seems to expect, but she’s still behind her brothers.

When she goes home for the summer holidays, her mother is pregnant again. Sue doesn’t know how her parents could manage another baby, let alone twins with already having her brothers. Three four _year_ old boys and soon two newborns is a lot to take care of.

Her father calls them all _Huànxióng_ , little raccoons, and Sue thinks it’s accurate, plums and all.

~`~

The day after Sue returns to Hogwarts for her fifth _year_ , she wakes up in a pool of blood.

Her mother warned her about this, but she’s a long way away from her mother and her wisdom. Lisa though, is there to help, she shows Sue how to use a tampon and how to stay clean and how to be careful.

Her bedsheets are striped and they get detention for being late to their first class of the _year_.

Michael and Anthony give them peanut butter sandwiches and plums and yogurt during break and don’t ask why they were late. Sue can barely eat, she’s hungry, but something is changing within her.

Hogwarts is no longer scary at fifteen _years_ old, but that doesn’t mean that it doesn’t have its moments. Her parents don’t know what is going on in this world, they have more than enough to deal with. Sue’s five little brothers are wild and crazy, and her two younger sisters were both unexpected and born too early.

But she can’t imagine her life without them. Her parents are Muggles, her siblings are full of potential, they’re all in danger.

Umbridge doesn’t like the idea of danger at Hogwarts, but she’s causing it. The anger and the hate she’s brewing is causing an imbalance.

It’s becoming harder to meditate, but Sue can’t help but think that it’s because of the other distractions she has. Like Lisa’s mouth, her long fingers, her shiny blonde curls, the way her kisses feel on Sue’s neck and lips.

She follows along after Lisa and Anthony and Michael and Terry to the Dumbledore Army’s meetings. She always tried to stay out of the way of the Gryffindor’s, but she’s learning not only how to defend herself, but her family. She has seven younger siblings, and her parents who face discrimination everyday because of their looks and accents.

Lisa doesn’t understand it, but Cho Chang does.

But Lisa’s mouth is warm and soft, her blonde curls are shiny and bouncy, and everything about her is exactly what Sue needs right now. She can pretend to be a native born English person, not a Chinese born immigrant.

~`~

Umbridge doesn’t like Sue for a lot of reasons, and catching Lisa kissing her is the first one. The second is Sue’s accent. The third is the color of her skin and her status in the country.

Three of many.

Sue is fifteen and too young to have to worry about the hate surrounding her nationality, but Cho gets it. Padma and Parvati face the same problems. They are four of many others that are facing the same problem under Umbridge, Michael and Terry and Dean Thomas, even Blaise Zabini and Theodore Nott of Slytherin are all getting the same racist treatment as Sue.

When she first came to England, she got screamed at on the streets when she spoke to her mother in Mandarin. The cashiers in stores would be a little forceful when they handed them their groceries. And of course, the kids in primary would be horribly racists to her.

But Umbridge was worse.

Lisa was forced to write _I will not kiss girls_. It was a waste of her pretty face and blonde curls and white skin, Sue knew this because Umbridge told them that. Sue was forced to write _I will always speak English_. Because Umbridge was racist and hated not knowing what others were saying about her, or around her.

Anthony is waiting up for them, rags soaked in a healing potion for them to wrap their hands in, a snack of plums for them.

~`~

War floats around them when they return the next year and Sue can’t help but worry about her family. Her brothers are all wild and loud, her sisters a quiet ray of light, and her parents tired. They don’t know what’s going on in her world, and she doesn’t want them to know, not this _time_ around.

It’s easy to forget the horrors outside of the castle as long as they focus only on what’s going on inside.

Some things stay the same though, Lisa’s lips are still warm and soft, her blonde curls are still shiny and bouncy, she is still beautiful. Sue is in love with her, she’s in love with Lisa’s smile and bright blue eyes and the way her fingers tangled with hers.

They can be open now that Umbridge isn’t around to scream at them, curse them, or make them write lies on their hands. Old Slughorn always gives them a sideways glance, but the Slytherins in their _year_ can’t tease them when two of them have the same sort of relationship as them. They’re protected, but not everyone else is.

Sue pushes Justin Flinch-Fletchley into a broom closest with Anthony and doesn’t say anything when Justin walks out with a sad smile on his face. Anthony looks as if he got hit by a stunner and can’t wake up after the revival spell.

Lisa is the one to curse Theodore Nott behind his back, and Sue knows that it’s the kind of curse that no one could see.

~`~

Sue sits with Lisa, with Padma and Terry, with Anthony, Michael, and even Cho Chang at Dumbledore’s funeral. She never knew anyone who died, but she had watched her mother almost bleed out in a hospital waiting room.

Sue hands out plums to everyone in their row, their grouping of blue and bronze. Her father sent them in the exam care package he sent to her every _year_. She doesn’t know if she’ll be returning next _year_ , Lucas Phillips is in the same boat as her, all of the Muggleborns their age are in between if they’ll return and fight or not.

They know that everything is up in the air, they’ll either be allowed to come back, or on the run.

Sue can’t go on the run though, she has seven younger siblings and her parents.

They’re a family of ten, they have more mouths to feed and clothe than they can really afford, could ever afford. Her mum helps run the store while also running a laundry and her father runs the store and runs a restaurant.

She knows that she’ll go home early, put on an apron and spend just as much time in the restaurant taking orders and folding menus as she will watching over her siblings. The triplets are eight now, the twins are four, and her sisters are two and one _years_ old. They’re a loud group, always shouting each other in both English and Mandarin.

Sue only speaks in Mandarin at home.

~`~

Lisa hides Sue in her trunk and apparently she isn’t the only one hiding in a trunk to get to school. Justin Flinch-Fletchley and her are a few of many who pop out of their friends trunks and appear in classes.

The Carrows spew hate and anger and division between them all. They curse Sue and Lisa and put them in detention for so much as smiling at each other, Pansy Parkinson has no problem hurting them now.

Sue had read Tracey Davis’ name in the _Daily Prophet_ just like the rest of them.

Instead of once a _month_ , her father sends her plums every _week_. They arrive by owl, in a box with letters in Mandarin for her from her siblings. When she had left to go home to school, she put as many wards as she could think of around their home and their businesses.

Her parents had been lying about where they lived since the moment Sue and her mother had come to England. They had been staying one step ahead of the immigration offices for _years_ , now her mother was hiding in plain sight.

Anthony noticed when Neville Longbottom disappeared first, and then Justin disappeared, and Sue followed Anthony into the Room of Requirement to disappear with him. They were all enemies of the Carrows, of Snape.

Neville was their leader, aided by Ginny Weasley and Luna Lovegood. Justin was their inventor, the problem solver. Sue and Anthony wrote messages on the walls, they created a code using the languages that Anthony knew and the letters that Sue could write.

Dumbledore’s Army, like the Order of the Phoenix, came up out of the ashes. They were both missing their original leaders, both missing their original generals and lieutenants. But they both had people willing to fight, they both were waiting for lightning to strike, and they descended down on Hogwarts when Harry Potter, Ron Weasley, and Hermione Granger came back to Hogwarts.

Sue found a quiet place before the battle really broke out and kissed Lisa for the last _time_ in her life. She also cleared her mind and breathed and found peace for a moment before the war broke out in the safest place she ever lived before.

~`~

Lucas Phillips, Terry Boot, and Lisa Turpin were their casualties.

Sue could live without them, she could live without Lucas and his stack of books and his arguments about Ministry policies. Lucas was going to be the Minister of Magic, or at least, he was going to be the Minister of Magic.

Sue could live without Terry, she could live without his gentle smile, his gifts of tofu, and the sliver cross he kept hidden under his robes like Michael. Terry had plans to marry Padma when they all graduated, he was going to go home and take over the store from his parents.

Sue could live without Lisa, she could live without her, but she didn’t want to.

She would hear Padma’s screams every day for the rest of her life. Sue would hear Padma’s screams in every nightmare of the battle, because a small part of her wished that she had been able to make the same sound.

Padma had screamed at the sight of Terry’s dead body, Sue had fallen to her knees and cried at the sight of Lisa. Her eyes were no longer bright, her blonde curls no longer shiny, and her smile no longer just for her.

Lisa was no more, and Sue couldn’t make herself eat plums anymore.

~`~

The Gryffindor’s all take the offer to become Aurors, the Slytherins all avoid the Ministry expect for two, and the Hufflepuffs find home at St. Mungo’s. Sue, Isobel, and Padma are the only Ravenclaws to go to the Ministry.

They divide from there.

Padma becomes an Unspeakable, Isobel goes to America as a member of the Department of International Magical Cooperation, Sue gets recruited into the Aurors.

Not all Aurors run missions.

Sue puts her code work, her Muggle upbringing, and her skills of hiding in plain sight to use to track down Death Eaters and send the others out after them. Her teams are Harry Potter and Ron Weasley, Parvati Patil (soon to be Thomas) and Dean Thomas, and Susan Bones and Neville Longbottom. She has a map in her solo cubicle and with pushpins that move as information comes to her. She also keeps the plum tree in her cubicle and offers everyone a snack as they come to visit her.

Sue and Susan are the only non-Gryffindor’s to join the Auror’s, but they won’t be the last.

When all the Death Eaters are caught, Susan and Neville both leave the Aurors, and Sue starts to work with Ron Weasley to update the Aurors playbooks. Sue never played wizards chess, but she becomes one of three people to ever beat Ron Weasley at the game.

His son Hugo is next person to beat him and his brother Percy had beat him once as a child.

Together though, they figure out how to train new recruits and how to keep everyone safe.

~`~

Thomas Adam Collins is three _years_ older than Sue, he was adopted from Japan when he was three _months_ old, and he’s a former Slytherin.

Someone once told her that Slytherins couldn’t be Muggleborns, but Thomas proves that it’s a lie. He’s stubborn and fiery and cunning, ambition pours out of him like nothing Sue has ever known. He steals a plum off of her tree every _time_ he passes, then after three _months_ of failed sneakiness, he asks her out.

It’s different from dating Lisa, Thomas is familiar in a way that she can’t name. He doesn’t have an accent like her, but he can speak Mandarin because one of his brothers does. Sue starts to learn Japanese when Thomas asks her to move in with him, and they have two ceremonies when they decide to get married.

The first ceremony is just their families, spoken in their native tongues. The second ceremony is with their friends, it’s loud, it’s fun, and Sue gives birth to a son exactly nine _months_ later.

Thomas Adam Li-Collins Jr. is a source of joy and Sue understands how her mother had eight children.

Thom is followed by Kimiko, and then Mei and Xai, then finally Aiden. Five is an easy number for them and it fits them well. They followed them to work, sleeping in the bassinet Sue kept in her office or sitting on Thomas’ lap as he filled out paperwork.

Thomas is a MLE officer, so Sue never worries too much when he’s sent out to pick up skips or do security details, but he’s always the first to volunteer to help when Aurors need extra man power. Sue’s relationship with Ron is beyond just a partnership, he would argue friendship and Sue wouldn’t deny it.

Ron makes sure that Thomas always comes back to her, because the last _time_ Sue didn’t watch the back of someone she loved, they died.

Kimiko’s middle name is Lisa and her godfather is Michael, someone is always keeping an eye on her now.

~`~

“Sue?”

Sue looked up from her paperwork and smiled as Thomas walked over to her, a plum in each of his palms. He sat down in one of the chairs across from her and handed her one of her own plums, before taking a bite of his own.

“Can I help you Officer Collins?” asked Sue, smiling at him as she leaned back in her chair, readjusting Aiden who was asleep on her chest. He was getting a little too big to fall asleep on her at six _years_ old, but with a near eight _year_ age difference from his siblings, he would always be the baby.

“I came to see if you wanted to come home.”

Sue sighed and took a bite of her plum. It tasted like home, like sitting in her parents’ store and watching after her little brothers.

“We are home,” Sue told him, before taking another bite from her plum. She had her cubicle set up in a way that she could see everyone who passed by, but they couldn’t see her unless they stepped into the small space.

“I mean our bed, Sue,” said Thomas, getting to his feet and throwing his plum pit away before walking around her desk to scoop up Aiden. Sue felt cold without him snuggled against her chest and warm in her arms. “Ai seems exhausted.”

“He was chasing after Ron all day.”

Thomas had been hesitant when Sue had suggested that Ron be named Aiden’s godfather, mostly because Thomas didn’t like Ron all that much. But Sue had pushed on, and Aiden loved Ron, even if it was an unlikely fit for them.

“Let’s go home,” said Sue, making herself get to her feet. She picked up her quill and quickly signed her name at the end of the form before grabbing her cloak. “See if anyone else is there.”

Thomas took Sue’s hand as they walked through the cubicles, she was the only Ravenclaw now who worked at the Ministry. Padma had left and returned a few _times_ , but the Unspeakables let her go after she left the second _time_. Isobel had left after the news of her affair with the American President got out.

She was used to being on her own anyways.

Padma came in and out at times, her oldest son was an Auror now, and Parvati still worked in the Auror offices.

“Let me drop this off real quick,” Sue whispered Thomas, as she stood just outside of Harry’s cubicle. “I’ll meet you over at the fireplace.”

Sue didn’t bother with knocking on the walls anymore, she just walked into the cubicles now not caring. She handed Harry her report and gave him a plum before walking back out, she didn’t run missions, but she checked over paperwork and she knew what everyone was up to before they even did.

It was her job to have eyes in the back of her head, even before she knew it herself. It was the one thing that didn’t change with _time_ , that and her plum tree.


End file.
